What I love the way that Bergman used the medium as a form of expression. . . . And the moment when the faces of the two women are combined into one face—I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything so beautiful and horrible at the same time.

In its opening and closing passages . . . [the young boy’s] gesture evokes both the infant’s need for the mother’s reciprocal gaze and Melanie Klein’s theory of the “good breast” vs. the “bad breast,” in which fluctuations between dependency and repulsion are only resolved when the child accepts that both breasts belong to the same person. Its projections onto the breast are thus the first instances of the dream screen, against which the child’s conflicting emotions enact a primal cinema.

Everytime you enter into the mysteries of "Persona" the experience makes you merge with the film and its character(s). No matter how you interpret it, you'll always get deep inside the human mind. A fascinating masterpiece.

Being in/watching Bergman films always made me feel like existing in a completely different time and space opposite of my own. A land so foreign and absurd, yet so familiar and natural ; our own subconsciousness. A psychological roller-coaster ride you need once in a while to let loose. and Persona is the colossal twister rail that stirs my stomach like a hurricane and plunge me out of seat and into oblivion.

Mind-blowing. I remember thinking that I don't know what the hell I just saw...but that it was one of the most fascinating and thought-provoking films I have seen. And I knew I would watch it again and again.

Truly magnificent in every respect, this is a fragmentary but utterly enthralling psycho-breakdown of ‘self’ conveyed in filmic language. A breakdown in most senses too, both emotional and analytical, although whether the parts are put back together again is unknown and repays repeated viewing - something revealed afresh each time. Stark, piercing and beautifully timed - take note all those that ape this masterwork.

Rewatch of a 35mm semicentennial print. This originally came out the same year as Antonioni's Blow-Up, which is odd given that both films are more or less 'about' the same thing -how perceived images (real or fake) have a palpable effect on our consciousness. This goes further, though, by demonstrating how the body is inextricable from the perception process (what would Merleau-Ponty have thought of this film?)...

A cogent meta-narrative exploring the blurred lines between love and hate. Bergman's tropes are often utilised in contemporary cinema (none more so than by his most famous fan, Woody Allen) and occasionally parodied (500 Days of Summer), but his avant-garde affectations rivalled Bunuel for their semantic clout.

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Antichrist

With the Cannes Film Festival rolling out the red carpet this week, we offer an annual takeover series spotlighting recent Cannes favorites. First up is one of the most extreme cinematic provocations: Lars von Trier’s Antichrist. An endurance test for which Charlotte Gainsbourg won Best Actress.